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17 x 4s and a 78-ball 100 – this is how David Warner smashed Pakistan in Sydney

David Warner has started 2017 in grand style. The dashing left-hander blasted his 18th century off just 78 balls as Australia got off to a magnificent start on the first day of the third Test versus Pakistan in Sydney. Australia chose to bat and Warner tore the Pakistan bowling apart by smashing five boundaries in three overs. (SCORECARD)

He notched up his fifty off just 41 balls and he brought up his landmark by steering Wahab Riaz to third man to bring up a century before lunch on the first day.

However, after the lunch break, Riaz got the left-hander to edge a good ball to the keeper as Warner departed for a magnificent 113. During the course of his knock, Warner entered a historic club.

Highlights

  • David Warner is only the fifth batsman to score a century on the first day of a Test match
  • Warner notched up the fourth-fastest century in Tests
  • Warner is fourth Australian to score a century before lunch on first day after Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney and Sir Don Bradman

Warner became only the fifth batsman in Test history to score a century before lunch on the first day of the Test match. Before him, the Australian trio of Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney and Sir Donald Bradman achieved this feat before Pakistan’s Majid Khan joined the list. This is the first time that such a feat has ever been achieved in Australia.

Trumper was the first batsman to achieve the feat against England in Manchester in 1902 when he smashed 103* before lunch. Although he departed for 104, Australia managed to win the match by a narrow margin of three runs. Macartney achieved this distinction during the 1926 Test in Leeds when he smashed 112* before lunch against England. Macartney batted at No.3 and he went on to score 151 as the match ended in a draw.

Bradman notched up 100 before lunch during the Leeds Test in 1930. He piled on the records as he smashed 334, in which 309 were scored in just one day. Majid became the first non-Australian and only Asian so far to have scored a hundred before lunch on the first day when he smashed 108* against New Zealand in Karachi in 1976.

There have been 17 other occasions in which batsman have scored 100 runs in the first session of a Test but not on the first day. The last batsman to score over 100 runs in a session was England’s Ben Stokes during the Cape Town Test against South Africa in January 2016 when he moved from 74* to 204* before lunch on the second day.

David Warner’s 78-ball century was the fastest ton ever scored in Tests in Sydney. (REUTERS)

Warner’s aggression boosts Australia

Warner’s aggression at the top has resulted in plenty of records. In the list of fastest hundreds in Tests, Warner’s name features four times. His fastest century was off 69 balls against India in Perth in 2012. He followed it up with an 82-ball century against West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2016 while he smashed a 93-ball ton against South Africa in Adelaide in 2012.

Warner’s 78-ball effort makes it the fourth-fastest hundred by an Australia batsman in Tests. Adam Gilchrist holds the record for the fastest ton by an Aussie after thumping a 57-ball century in the Ashes Test against England in Perth in 2006. Jack Gregory’s 67-ball century against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1921 is second on the list, followed by Warner’s 69-ball blitz. The left-hander’s century off 78 balls is the fastest in Sydney.

Source: HindustanTimes